Navy's Big Weakness: Our Aircraft Carriers Are (Expensive) Defenseless Sitting Ducks

By Gary Brecher, eXiled Online. Posted April 3, 2009.

"The purpose of the Navy," Vice Admiral John Bird, commander of the 7th Fleet, tells me, "is not to fight." The mere presence of the Navy should suffice, he argues, to dissuade any attack or attempt to destabilize the region.

From Yokosuka, Guam, and Honolulu, the Navy is sending its ships on missions to locales as far away as Madagascar. On board the Blue Ridge, the vice admiral's command ship anchored at Yokosuka, huge display screens allow officers to track the movements of any country's military vessels cruising from the international date line in the east to the African coast in the west -- the range of the 7th Fleet's zone of influence.

That's the kind of story people are still writing. It's so stupid, that first line, I won't even bother with it: "The purpose of the Navy is not to fight." No kidding. The 7th Fleet covers the area included in that 2,000 kilometer range for the new Chinese anti-ship weapons, so I guess it's a good thing they're not there to fight.

Stories like this were all over the place in the last days of the British empire. For some dumb-ass reason, these reporters love the Navy. They were waving flags and feeling good about things when the Repulse and the Prince of Wales steamed out with no air cover to oppose Japanese landings. Afterward, when both ships were lying on the sea floor, nobody wanted to talk about it much.

What I mean to say here is, don't be fooled by the happy talk. That's the lesson from GM, Chrysler and the Navy: These people don't know shit.

And they don't fucking care either. They're going to ride the system and hope it lasts long enough to see them retire to a house by a golf course, get their daughters married and buy a nice plot in an upscale cemetery. They could give a damn what happens to the rest of us.

See more stories tagged with: navy, missiles, carriers

Gary Brecher is the author of "The War Nerd" (Soft Skull, 2008). Read more of his work at eXiledOnline.com.

Liked this story? Get top stories in your inbox each week from AlterNet! Sign up now »